Across the U.S., more than 60 advanced reactor developers are innovating with billions of dollars in public and private capital to meet rapidly growing electricity demand. But innovation alone does not deliver power. If nuclear power is to be an essential source for exploding power demands across the nation, we must make a strategic choice: continue funding a broad field of demonstrations, or prioritize a smaller set of technologies capable of near-term deployment at scale to provide the hundreds of gigawatts needed by 2030.
COMMENTARY
The answer is clear. Federal policy—particularly through the Department of War (DOW) and the Department of Energy (DOE)—must select, support, and deploy reactor technologies that can deliver power in the near term to meet an urgent demand. The DOE took a good step in August 2025 by announcing work with 11 advanced reactor projects to construct, operate, and achieve criticality of at least three test reactors by July 4, 2026.
Not All Business Cases Are Created Equal
Not every developer has a credible pathway to success. History shows many early-stage energy ventures will fall short. That is not a failure of innovation—it’s a feature of it. The risk is fragmentation. When capital is spread across too many parallel efforts without clear deployment benchmarks, progress stalls, financing tightens, and supply chains fail to materialize.
Markets alone will not solve this problem. Nuclear energy is capital-intensive, highly regulated, and dependent on long-lead supply chains that require demand certainty before investment. Without early, committed customers and coordinated federal action, even promising technologies can fail to reach commercialization.
The Federal Government Must Assume a Decisive Role
The DOW and DOE are uniquely positioned to accelerate the transition from prototype demonstrations to operational deployment at scale. As history shows, federal adoption of nuclear technologies has often catalyzed commercial success. Early, repeat deployments create an order book. That order book strengthens supply chains, reduces first-of-a-kind costs, and drives technologies toward Nth-of-a-kind affordability. This virtuous cycle benefits both national security and commercial markets.
Existing programs provide a foundation to build on—but we must now accelerate. For example, the Department of the Army’s Project Janus is laser-focused on microreactors of less than 20 MWe output, but microreactors alone will not meet the scale of America’s growing electricity demand. Meeting that demand will also require larger, modular reactors capable of delivering tens to hundreds of megawatts per unit—and ultimately multiple gigawatt-scale deployments across the commercial grid.
The challenge is not choosing between microreactors and large reactors. It is ensuring that both are developed with a clear path to customer demand, and that federal support is aligned with technologies capable of delivering at scale.
Charting the Course
If the goal is to restore American nuclear leadership to meet the global demand for power, six actions must be taken.
1. Ask ‘For What Ultimate Outcome?’ at Every Milestone Investment
While moving a reactor by air from one location to another makes for a great press release, demonstrations must show measurable progress toward licensing, fuel availability, cost competitiveness, construction readiness, and operations tied to real customers to meet our nation’s ravenous appetite for more reliable electricity.
2. Align Federal Investment and Procurement with Deployment Benchmarks
Taxpayer dollars—and federal procurement commitments—should prioritize technologies that meet clear milestones and demonstrate a viable path to repeatable, affordable deployment. We need to separate leaders from the pack.
3. Establish Transparent Criteria to Prioritize Scalable Technologies
The federal government should define objective metrics—including regulatory progress, supply chain readiness, financing viability, and customer demand—to guide private capital toward the viable business plans.
4. Capture Lessons Learned from Pilots and Institutionalize Success
Pathfinder efforts like Project Janus and the Reactor Pilot Program must either inform other programs, or result in sustained procurement programs of proven technologies to meet urgent national energy and security needs.
5. Federal Investments in the Industrial Base
Unlike China, which has invested in domestic production for the entire nuclear supply chain, U.S. reactor designers still rely on foreign manufacturing for critical components such as nuclear-grade heavy forgings. Sustained reactor deployment will require a domestic fuel supply, manufacturing capacity for nuclear-grade components, and a trained workforce. Without these, even successful designs cannot be scaled at the speed of need.
6. Adopt Technologies to Accelerate Development
The DOE’s Prometheus Grand Challenge needs firm collaboration from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and near-term milestones to adopt the artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled digital twins that will vastly accelerate the modeling, simulation, and licensing of safe reactor designs.
Delivering on the Promise
At a time when critical infrastructure is under increasing threat, and both electricity demand and costs continue to rise, we need immediate, reliable, scalable energy solutions. Nuclear energy can meet this moment—but only if we move beyond a fragmented development phase toward disciplined integration milestones.
We cannot afford to invest in an endless pipeline of innovative technologies, most of which will never materialize. We need a focused strategy to deploy a high-performance cadre of “sure-fire” technologies capable of meeting significant national demand. In fact, industry experts have already developed recommendations for the DOW strategy to meet that goal. The measure of success should not be how many demonstrations generate press releases, or how many companies receive venture funding, but how quickly nuclear technologies are deployed at scale to meet America’s exploding energy demand at an affordable cost.
The goal is clear. Our national need is real and compelling. The momentum is growing. Now, we must put shovels in the ground and deliver power for all Americans.
—The Honorable Lucian Niemeyer has served his professional career in energy for national security as former military engineer, U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Staffer, Assistant Secretary of Defense, and White House Official. He is the co-founder of the United Coalition for Advanced Nuclear Power, a non-profit organization committed to a clear path for the nuclear power industry.
